[Sca-cooks] Andalusian = Middle Eastern?
David Friedman
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Sat Oct 15 14:37:42 PDT 2005
...
>However, what are the reasons to suggest that the foods of Andalusia
>were common or even used in the Middle East? They may both be
>Moslem, but Andalusia (I thought) was southern Spain and perhaps
>Morocco? That's a long way from the Middle East.
Al Andalus is Muslim Spain. There is quite a considerable similarity
between what you find in that cookbook and what you find in
al-Baghdadi, suggesting regional variants of a more or less common
cuisine.
>
>>Do we know when tea came into use in the Middle East? I can't think
>>of period references, although given the close ties between the
>>Ilkhans and the mongol rulers of China, it doesn't seem impossible.
>
>Who were the "Ilkhans" and what connections to the mongol rulers of
>China are you talking about?
The Ilkhans were the Mongol rulers of Persia. In _A Soup for the Qan_
there is a discussion of the close relations between the two groups,
offered as an explanation of the appearance of a fair number of
middle eastern recipes in a chinese cookbook.
>Even so, it seems unlikely to me that tea/chai would have made it to
>the Middle East but not to Europe. Can anyone think of any other
>central or southwestern Asian item that made it to the Middle East
>but not to Europe within a reasonable time after that, which did
>later catch on in Europe?
Civilization?
>Coffee certainly doesn't count since it isn't from Asia and it did
>make it from the Middle East to Europe within a century or two.
About two centuries, I think.
--
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
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